1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image quality adjustment technique for adjusting image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
The quality of image data generated by a digital still camera (DSC), digital video camera (DVC) or the like can be adjusted as desired using an image retouching application on a personal computer. An image retouching application is typically equipped with an image adjusting function for automatically adjusting the quality of image data; by using this image adjusting function, the quality of an image output by an output device can be improved. CRTs, LCDs, printers, projectors, and television receivers, for example, are known as image output devices.
A printer driver, which controls the operation of one of these output devices, namely, a printer, is also equipped with a function for automatically adjusting image quality, and the quality of printed images can be improved using such a printer driver as well.
However, the automatic image quality adjusting function provided by an image retouching application or printer driver executes quality correction suitable for image data having standard image characteristics. On the other hand, image data being subjected to image processing can be produced under various conditions, so in some instances quality cannot be improved by executing a same given automatic image quality adjusting function.
For example, where a landscape, commemorative photo, or other image is output, a sharp image that is in focus over the entire image plane from foreground to background is desirable. For this purpose, it is common to step down the aperture (increase the aperture value), and set operating mode, for example, the exposure mode, to aperture priority mode in which user-set aperture value has priority, or to manual mode. However, even where image correction suitable for image data having standard image characteristics is performed on such image data, adequate sharpness cannot be achieved in some instances. This problem is not limited to DSCs, and is a problem common to DVCs and other such image producing devices.